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12-13-96Added
12-13-96This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press December 13, 1996.
By VALLEY PRESS STAFF and Wire Reports
PALMDALE - The state's Intercity High Speed Rail Commission Thursday chose an alignment that would take a planned highspeed rail line through the Antelope Valley and across the Tehachapi Mountains.
Antelope Valley leaders applauded the decision to route the line linking Southern and Northern California through the Valley. Such a high-speed rail line could benefit the Valley in numerous economic ways and finally make Palmdale Regional Airport a serious contender.
"This is fantastic," Lancaster Mayor Frank Roberts said. "This marks the distinction between having and not having fast transport between Palmdale Regional Airport and LAX. This seals the fate of Palmdale Regional Airport."
The nine-member commission recommended the local route instead of one that traversed the Grapevine along Interstate 5.
Aside from its ability to ferry passengers, the high-speed rail service could, for example, be used to ship space program supplies in or out, said Lancaster Vice Mayor Henry Hearns.
"This is the greatest thing since dirt," Hearns quipped.
Local officials prefer that such a line stop as close as possible to the Palmdale airport, which is located on Air Force Plant 42 property.
The commission's final recommendation calls for a high-speed rail system running a route along Highway 99 through the Central Valley, with spurs along I-15 to San Diego and through the Altamont Pass to San Francisco instead of Oakland.
In its report released Thursday, the Commission recommended a 680-mile system starting at Union Station in Los Angeles, instead of Los Angeles International Airport. That would cost less to build and serve more people, the report said.
It would end in downtown San Francisco and San Jose, instead of Oakland as East San Francisco Bay area officials had hoped. That offered higher ridership and revenue projections, commission members reasoned.
Trains would pass through 14 stations along the way with local cars stopping and express cars breezing through, the report said. For convenience, schedules would be coordinated with commuter bus and rail lines at common stations.
Service between Los Angeles and San Diego should use an inland route along Interstate 15 instead of a coastal route as previously recommended, the report said. That would serve the fast growing communities in San Bernardino and Riverside counties and avoid significant environmental impacts on the coast.
From there, it would traverse the Central Valley along the vicinity of State Route 99 because that route passes through the largest cities.
Then it would move north, veering west of Stockton to enter the San Francisco Bay area via the Altamont Pass. There, it would branch off at Newark with one line continuing across a newly constructed Dumbarton rail bridge and up the Peninsula to downtown San Francisco.
The other branch would continue south from Newark to San Jose.
An alignment from Stockton would connect Sacramento to the system.
The trains would be either steel wheels on rails, a less expensive and slower option, or magnetic levitation technology. Estimates show the former would cost $20.7 billion and reach speeds of up to 220 mph while the mag-lev system would cost $28.9 billion and go as fast as 310 mph.
Average operating speed would be about 150 mph between San Francisco and Los Angeles with lower speeds of about 125 mph in urban areas. That would make the trip between Los Angeles and San Francisco only 2 hours and 49 minutes on steel wheels or just over two hours with mag-lev technology.
Construction would be funded through a sales tax or gas tax. Federal and local monies as well as private participation should contribute as much as possible.
Once fully operational, fare box and other revenues will exceed operating costs, according to the report. In addition, allowing some high-speed freight lines such as overnight delivery services and express mail would bring in additional revenue.
The system would be built in two phases over an eight-year period. The first phase, estimated to take five years, would link Los Angeles to San Francisco. The second would connect San Diego and Sacramento to the line over the course of three years.
The commission's report notes that a high-speed rail system is vital to California's economic development because the state's highway system and airports will become inadequate as the state's population grows nearly 50 percent from 32.7 million people now to a projected 48.8 million by 2020.
What's more, it points out, an electric rail system would serve the region well in case of a natural disaster that could disable petroleum-fuel dependent modes of travel such as buses, cars and airplanes.
It would be most beneficial in the Central Valley, where air service is sporadic at best and highway travel is impossible during the thick tule fogs, the report said.
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